Southport Roadworks This Week: Switch Island Nights to 7 Oct

Switch Island is shut in some direction every night until Wednesday 7 October. Tonight it is the big one. The M58 closes in both directions at Switch Island from 8pm on Friday 2 October until 6am on Saturday.

Closer to home, one short closure lands on the edge of town next week. New Lane in Crossens shuts between numbers 47 and 59 from 8am on Tuesday 6 to 5pm on Thursday 8 October, for a new water connection.

Two dates further out are worth noting now:

• Bescar Lane level crossing, Scarisbrick: shut from 11.59pm on Saturday 17 October to 7am on Sunday 18 October, with no emergency access.
• Merseyrail’s Northern Line works start on Sunday 11 October. Southport keeps its trains, but Sunday services run to Sandhills only.

Updated 2 October: the Switch Island nights now run to 7 October; New Lane, Crossens and Bescar Lane added; the September Scarisbrick crossing, Altcar Lane and Asmall Lane closures have ended and are removed.

Here is the dated detail, and where to check what is shut today.

Switch Island: closed every night to Wednesday 7 October

The current National Highways closure report covers Thursday 1 to Wednesday 7 October (National Highways closure report). These are the entries on the roads that carry journeys out of Sefton.

Road	What closes	When
M58	Both directions at Switch Island	Fri 2 Oct, 8pm to 6am
A59 northbound	M58 to Switch Island	Fri 2 Oct, 8pm to 6am
M57 northbound	Link road onto the A5036	Fri 2 Oct, 8pm to 6am
M57 northbound	Junction 5 entry slip, emergency gas works	To 11.59pm Fri 2 Oct
A5036 eastbound	Copy Lane to Switch Island	Sat 3 Oct, 9pm to 6am
A5036 eastbound	Copy Lane to Switch Island	Sun 4 Oct, 9pm to 6am
A5036 westbound	At Switch Island	Mon 5 Oct, 8pm to 6am
A5036 westbound	At Switch Island	Tue 6 Oct, 8pm to 6am
M57 southbound	Junction 6 to junction 4, plus slips at 4, 5 and 6	Tue 6 Oct, 9pm to 5am
A5036 westbound	At Switch Island	Wed 7 Oct, 8pm to 6am
M57 northbound	Junction 1 entry slip road	Continuous, to 6am Wed 28 Oct
M57 southbound	Junction 1 exit slip road	Continuous, to 5am Sun 31 Jan 2027

National Highways gives the reason for the Switch Island closures as carriageway reconstruction and renewal. The Friday closures and the Monday to Wednesday westbound nights belong to the scheme covering the M58, M57, A5036 and A59 into the junction. The weekend eastbound nights from Copy Lane come under a separate scheme on the M57 northbound approach. The Tuesday M57 closure between junctions 4 and 6 is for cutting and planting, and the junction 5 slip is emergency work for Cadent Gas.

Two slip roads at Switch Island are shut round the clock, and neither is new:

• The M57 northbound junction 1 entry slip closed at 8pm on Wednesday 2 September and is booked to stay shut until 6am on Wednesday 28 October. National Highways gives the reason as off network works.
• The M57 southbound junction 1 exit slip, the one down to Tarbuck Island, has been shut since 27 May 2025 and is booked to 31 January 2027, for works by Knowsley Council. It reads like bad data. It is not.

What it means for you. Friday night is the one to plan around. With the M58 shut both ways at Switch Island, the direct route between Sefton and Skelmersdale, Wigan and the M6 is gone from 8pm. From Saturday the closures drop to one direction of the A5036 at a time:

• Saturday and Sunday nights: heading east from Copy Lane, towards the motorways, from 9pm.
• Monday to Wednesday nights: heading west at the junction, towards Crosby and the coast, from 8pm.

So a late drive home from the M57 or M58 towards Crosby is the trip caught on the weekday nights. National Highways now refreshes the report daily, so nights after Wednesday 7 October are not yet listed.

New Lane, Crossens and the Lancashire lanes

Sefton’s own roads carry no advertised closures at the moment. Lancashire County Council’s orders cover the lanes on the borough’s eastern edge, and two of the live ones are close to town. The county’s order places this stretch of New Lane, Crossens, in West Lancashire borough.

New Lane, Crossens: Tuesday 6 to Thursday 8 October. The road closes from outside number 47 to outside number 59, from 8am on Tuesday 6 October until 5pm on Thursday 8 October. The work replaces an old lead supply with a new water connection. Emergency access is kept at all times and residents keep vehicle access wherever possible. The council has now made the order, which it first advertised as an intention on 23 September (Lancashire County Council order, 30 September). The notice gives no diversion, because access is maintained.

Bescar Lane, Scarisbrick: Saturday night 17 October. The road closes for 20 metres either side of the level crossing from 11.59pm on Saturday 17 October until 7am on Sunday 18 October, so the crossing can be removed and replaced. There will be no access for emergency services, and the county says there is no alternative route for vehicles. For now this is a notice that the county intends to make the order (Lancashire County Council notice, 30 September). It follows the same overnight job at the Pool Hey Lane and Wyke Lane crossings on 26 September, which the county had extended to 9am.

Greens Lane, Downholland, about five miles east of Formby, stays closed from its junction with the B5195 Formby Lane to Greens Lane Farm until 7pm on Wednesday 7 October, for major water mains replacement. The diversion uses the B5195 Broad Lane and the A5147. The county has now made this order too (Lancashire County Council order).

All are temporary orders under section 14 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, and each lapses early if the work finishes sooner. Pedestrian access to properties is kept throughout.

What it means for you. New Lane is the closest to town, and it is a short stretch with access kept. The Bescar Lane closure is overnight but has no emergency access at all, so note it if you live beyond the crossing. The A565 and the A570 stay open.

The objection period for the permanent stopping up of Sandbrook Way, Ainsdale closed on 24 September. The decision rests with the Department for Transport, under reference SUO3508534.

Southport Eastern Access: the works at Kew Roundabout

Sefton Council confirmed on Monday 17 August that Phase 2 of the Southport Eastern Access scheme started that day (Sefton Council). Its scheme page sets out what the work involves (Sefton Council):

• early works in Meols Park, alongside Scarisbrick New Road
• clearing bushes and vegetation on Foul Lane and at Kew Roundabout
• main construction from September, expected to take about nine months
• the full work area covers Meols Park, Foul Lane, Kew Roundabout, Town Lane Kew and New Foul Lane

The scheme page has not been updated since 6 August, and we checked it again on 2 October. Nothing on it, and nothing on the council’s news pages, confirms that the main phase has actually begun, so “September” remains the plan rather than a start date you can rely on.

The Meols Park work is a layer of stone laid along the park boundary as the foundation for a widened footpath and a segregated cycle path. The council is deliberately leaving that stone to settle for a few months before the tarmac goes on near the end of the scheme, because of poor ground conditions. Expect that stretch to look unfinished for most of the job. That is the plan, not a delay.

What is actually changing at Kew

Sefton has published the design, and it is a rebuild rather than resurfacing (Sefton Council highway proposals):

• Kew Roundabout gets traffic lights and signalised crossings on every arm, plus a segregated footpath and cycle path. It stops being a give-way roundabout.
• Scarisbrick New Road, along the park side, gets a widened footway and a new cycle path up to Kew Roundabout, and the crossings are upgraded to a pelican crossing.
• Foul Lane is opened up to through traffic. The road is currently blocked. The block comes out, the carriageway is widened, and you will be able to turn in from Crowland Street and drive straight through.
• Past the mini roundabout towards B&Q, a segregated queuing lane is added.

The council says traffic will be kept moving around the roundabout using cones and lane closures rather than full closures, and that access for residents and businesses will be maintained throughout. It also warns plainly that journey times will be longer while the work is on.

What it means for you. If you come into Southport from Ormskirk, Scarisbrick or the retail parks, this is your route. Add time from now until next spring. If the queues build and you are heading for the town centre, the coast road through Birkdale is the alternative, though it is slower in normal conditions.

What it costs and who is paying

The scheme is budgeted at £19.97 million, funded through the Liverpool City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement. The funding carries a condition: all of it must be committed by March 2027 (Sefton Council). That deadline is the reason the timetable is what it is.

Phase 1 of the same scheme, at the Sussex Road and Bispham Road junctions, is already complete.

The other borough schemes, and where each one stands

Sefton lists five major highway projects. Two are done, two are part done and one has yet to start (Sefton Council).

• Les Transformations de Southport phase 1 finished at the end of 2025. It pedestrianised Market Street, made King Street one way, and brought wider footways, new paving, new crossings, tree planting and rain gardens on Eastbank Street. It was allocated £6.2 million from the Sustainable Transport Settlement and the Levelling Up Fund Town Deal (latest updates, funding).
• A59 Corridor, Maghull. Construction started in March 2025 and most of it, including the new CYCLOPS junction at Kenyons Lane, was finished in early 2026. The council says outstanding electrical connections mean works around Robbins Roundabout are still not complete. The final footway work and the new signal crossings switch on once those connections are made. The speed limit on the corridor has come down from 60mph to 40mph (Sefton Council).
• Maritime Corridor, Netherton. Phase 1, on Dunnings Bridge Road and Netherton Way, was completed in February 2026. On 14 September the council said Phase 2 starts the following week, on Bridle Road, with junction improvements at Bridle Way, Farriers Way and Vesty Road and a new walking and cycling route from Vesty Road to Deltic Way. It is expected to take around 12 months, covering 1.2km of road and 2.4km of footpath. During the works Bridle Road becomes one way from Netherton Way to Park Lane, so traffic cannot run from Park Lane towards Netherton Way, and the 58 bus is affected in the Netherton to Liverpool direction. The council says an independent study found the alternative, temporary traffic lights, would have stretched the job to an estimated two years (Sefton Council). Bridle Road is at Netherton, at the far south of the borough and nearer Liverpool than Southport. Nothing in this scheme touches a route into town.
• Norwood Mitigation Improvements is listed but its pages carry no dates.

Les Transformations phase 2: what is proposed for the Promenade

Phase 2 covers the seafront, and the council has now published the design in detail even though the latest-updates page is still marked as under development, so there is no start date to plan around yet. The proposals are tied to getting people to the new Marine Lake Events Centre on the site of the old Southport Theatre. The key changes proposed (Sefton Council):

• Nevill Street becomes one way for cars, northbound past West Street.
• The Promenade gets a formalised central reservation carrying a cycle path, described as a green spine, which stops cars cutting through Bath Street.
• Marine Parade becomes left turn only, both onto and off the Promenade.
• The top of Bold Street becomes southbound only from the Promenade.
• Promenade parking is reorganised onto the south side, giving 16 spaces, plus new taxi, disabled, drop-off and coach bays.
• Eight new pedestrian crossings, some signalised and some not.
• The carriageway on the Promenade is narrowed to widen the footways.

The council’s own FAQ is blunt about the consequence: with the central reservation in, you will no longer be able to turn right off the northbound Promenade into Victoria Street, Bold Street or Bath Street. It says drivers will be routed round the town centre instead, using Seabank Street, Leicester Street, Park Street and Marine Drive to the north, or the Esplanade, Duke Street and Kingsway to the south. Its traffic modelling concludes there will be no significant impact on congestion, even at peak summer.

On 30 September the council answered a ward councillor’s description of the scheme as a £14 million cycle lane. Cllr Phil Hart, the Cabinet Member for Housing and Highways, called that claim misleading. He said the scheme brings extra crossings and better safety and accessibility outside the new events centre. He also said the existing cycle route nearby, blocked while the centre is built, reopens once it is complete (Sefton Council). The statement does not give the scheme’s cost or a start date.

Trains: Northern Line works start Sunday 11 October

If your fallback for all of this is the train, the date is now nine days away. Merseyrail is closing part of the Northern Line for four weeks from Sunday 11 October to Friday 6 November 2026 for a £3.5 million project to strengthen and waterproof four tunnels on the approach into Liverpool from the south (Merseyrail).

The good news for this end of the line is that Southport keeps its trains:

• Monday to Saturday: trains run between Southport and Liverpool Central. Replacement buses cover Hunts Cross to Moorfields.
• Sundays: Southport trains run to Sandhills only. Replacement buses cover Hunts Cross to Sandhills.
• Normal services resume on Saturday 7 November.

Two Sundays also cut the Wirral Line short. On 11 and 18 October Wirral Line trains terminate at James Street, with no trains at Moorfields, Lime Street or Liverpool Central. On 25 October and 1 November replacement buses run from Birkenhead North and Rock Ferry to Moorfields instead. So a Sunday trip from Southport to the Wirral in October takes a change and, on two of those Sundays, a bus.

The work is meant to stop water reaching the 750V third rail, which the operator says is a cause of power failures, emergency speed restrictions and unplanned closures across the network. New track feeder switches are going in at the same time so engineers can isolate smaller sections of railway remotely.

The Southport timetable shifts on 8 November

Two days after the tunnel work ends, the Southport line timetable changes for the leaf fall season (Merseyrail). From Sunday 8 November:

• trains from stations between Southport and Sandhills depart up to three minutes earlier than currently scheduled
• arrival times into Liverpool city centre stay the same
• trains out of Liverpool leave at their usual times but may arrive up to three minutes later at stations between Sandhills and Southport

Merseyrail says the adjustment is because fallen leaves leave a slippery layer on the rail that affects acceleration and braking, so trains may run at slightly reduced speeds. The Chester and Ellesmere Port lines change earlier, from Sunday 20 September, which does not affect journeys from this end of the network.

Day to day, the Merseyrail line into Southport is unaffected by any of the roadworks on this page.

The two roads that carry Southport

• The A565 is the coast road. It runs down Lord Street and out through Birkdale as Waterloo Road and Lulworth Road, then on through Ainsdale, Formby and Crosby towards Liverpool. Almost every trip along the Sefton coast uses part of it.
• The A570 comes in from the east as Scarisbrick New Road, past Kew Roundabout and the retail parks. It is the main inland approach, and the road the Eastern Access works sit on.

Sefton publishes a rolling highway maintenance programme listing which carriageways are due resurfacing. Several A565 stretches through Birkdale, Ainsdale and Formby appear in the 2025 to 2027 list, including A565 Waterloo Road and A565 Lulworth Road in Birkdale (Sefton Council maintenance programme). Individual resurfacing jobs are short, usually a few nights or a week, and are notified locally rather than announced across the borough in advance.

How to check what is closed today

Roadworks pages go stale within days. These are fed live by the people doing the digging:

• Sefton’s street works map shows works booked on the borough’s own roads, including utility company digs.
• one.network for Sefton shows the same data with diversions and planned closures, and covers neighbouring authorities so you can see the West Lancashire side of a journey too.
• National Highways closure report is the source for the M57, M58, M6 and A5036 entries above, republished weekly.

While you are here: our pages on Southport train times, house prices across the borough and the district’s planning decisions cover the other things people usually want to look up.

Frequently asked questions

Is Switch Island closed this weekend?

Yes, overnight, in part. The A5036 eastbound from Copy Lane to Switch Island closes from 9pm to 6am on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October. Before that, the M58 closes in both directions at Switch Island from 8pm on Friday 2 October to 6am on Saturday, with the A59 northbound from the M58 and the M57 northbound link onto the A5036. All are on National Highways’ closure report for 1 to 7 October.

Is the A5036 closed next week?

Yes, at night. The A5036 westbound closes at Switch Island from 8pm to 6am on Monday 5, Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 October, for carriageway reconstruction. That is the direction towards Crosby and the coast.

Which Southport roads are closed next week?

New Lane in Crossens closes between numbers 47 and 59 from 8am on Tuesday 6 October to 5pm on Thursday 8 October, for a new water connection, with access and emergency access kept. Greens Lane at Downholland, east of Formby, stays shut until 7pm on Wednesday 7 October. The Bescar Lane level crossing at Scarisbrick closes overnight on Saturday 17 October, with no emergency access.

How long is the M57 junction 1 entry slip closed?

The northbound junction 1 entry slip at Switch Island closed at 8pm on Wednesday 2 September and is booked to stay shut continuously until 6am on Wednesday 28 October 2026, which National Highways attributes to off network works. The southbound junction 1 exit slip down to Tarbuck Island is a separate and much longer closure, shut since May 2025 and booked to 31 January 2027 for works by Knowsley Council.